Technical What did you do with your car today? * NEW*

I got some bushings installed in my control arms for the 57 wagon. Then found out I installed two of them to far in which means they have to come out and be redone. Getting ready to do a compression check on my 312 and finally found a MC that will work. so the brake lines will be done next week!

 

From the BillyBob Shop log.

July 8th 2021 Cleaning no. one piston assembly. Figuring out what works, what works better and in what order. When I establish a procedure, the other seven will go quicker. That's the theory anyway.

Dragged out my Dad's ancient piston ring groove cleaner and tried to intuit how to use it. This arrived on my doorstep a few years ago, addressed to "Mr Nimrod". My brother's short note that accompanied it, said it should come in handy in three or four years when I got around to BillyBob's stovebolt engine, the last engine Dad used it on in the eighties when My brother owned the truck.

Did some initial cleaning of the piston with Scotchbrite buffs in the Dremel motor tool after knocking the worst carbon off the top with Scotchbrite cookies in an air angle grinder. The piston was marked with 040 on the top. The beer of the day was Hanger 24 Craft Brewing's Betty West Coast IPA.

 

Block sanded and primed the pickup bed

 

Washed my Thunderbird at lunch today so it won’t look so bad parked next to all the “collector” cars that may leave a garage and show up at work tomorrow for the national “Collector Car Appreciation Day”. I sent out an email to several co-workers so we will see who all dusts off their dust collectors and brings them to work tomorrow.

 

370 test drive in the custom 1962 Volvo. Safford, AZ, Lordsburg, NM, Douglas, AZ. Mostly 55 MPH and 65 mph roads. With a couple of 75 MPH blasts on I-10 to get to the next secondary road. The car survived almost 100 Degree temperatures in the light traffic of Safford. Engine temps stayed under 210, even at the lights. I had one unexplained stumble - I "think" I have finally solved the vapor lock problem.

The modified 4 cylinder engine is turning 4,000 RPM at 75 MPH. We decided that this was not the best vehicle to take on a 5,000+ mile cross country trip.
1. Miles per gallon drop at 4,000 RPM - Maybe 15 (most of our trip was slower). 10 gallon tank means that you are always looking for the next gas station.
2. Due to our age, we were already looking for the next gas station.
3. The engine noise is much more intense at 75 MPH.
4. The Volvo should easily survive a 5,000+ mile trip. Our limit is about 3 days without a day off. We will drive something quieter.

Russ

 

Decided it was time to "adjust" the mechanical fan on my SBC in my '39 coupe. I'm using a '32 For aftermarket aluminum radiator, and when I assembled the car I didn't really get the fan as close as I should have. It's 2.5" back from the radiator, so not very efficient, especially so stuck in stop & go traffic. Never overheats, but goes from 180 degrees driving to 200-210 in traffic.
So grabbed 3 spacers I had and took the fan off. Decided the longest 2" spacer would work best, but after fighting the tight clearance to get the bolts in, the darn blades just touched the welded trans cooler fittings at the bottom! So off it came, and I dropped back to the 1.5" spacer.
After more battling to get the bolts in and tight, I spun the fan only to hear it touch metal somewhere again! This time the spacing was perfect to make it scrape the stainless steel catch can beside the radiator!! So had to pull the brackets, and bend up offset brackets to move it outboard 3/8".
Another simple little job that took several hours! The good news is I headed out on the freeway to meet some guys at a local pizza place, and got stuck in a traffic jam. The engine temp never got over 185 stuck in traffic, so at least it worked now!

 

You might try one of the old rings, always worked well for me.

 

Yanked the hubcaps off, rattle canned the rims and found some chrome lug nuts in my stash. Instant hot rod.

 

Picked up the parts car that came with my convertible when I bought it. Drove to Edmonton and back today to pick it up. About 1200km round trip.

 

I finished welding in the motor mounts, and got the block back from the machine shop.

 

My grandson spent the weekend and we got the rest of the interior installed in the car, great weekend project to work on together.

 

Sweet

 

Thanks I appreciate it.

 

My dash had a light that says "brake". It was missing the red lens so today I made a lens for it.

 

Well while I was in there tinkering I decided to fix my sun visors.

Before:


Here is after:



1) Remove 3 screws to remove from the vehicle
2) You simply pull the actual sun visor off the rod. Little snug but slides right off.
3) I heat the bend on the rod with a torch.
4) Bend the rod to the correct angle
5) Cool it down
6) Simply slide the sun visor back on the rod
7) Install in vehicle

 

I've been slacking on my project so I threw some parts together today to help my motivation and to get a rough visual.
(My wife tells me guys are visual so I got that going for me.)

 

Broke it!

 

From the BillyBob Shop log.

July 12th 2021 Developed a procedure for the nailhead piston assembly cleanup: 1) Remove the rings; 2) Clean ring grooves; 3) Submerge assembly in Oileater parts washer for an hour; 4) Dissemble piston assembly; 5) Submerge piston in Chem-Dip; 6); Go over all parts that need it with the Scotchbrite buffs in the Dremel tool; 7) Submerge all parts in an ultrasonic cleaner session; 8 ) Submerge rod, cap, wrist pin and bolts in Evapo-Rust; Give all parts a light coating of Marvel Mystery Oil and reassemble loosely. This procedure may need fine tuning. We'll see how it goes for now. Background music was Pink Floyd's Meddle.

 

Got back to working on the sheet metal around the grille on my '47 today. Next step; pull the grille and finish the welding and then onto the extension on the lower edge of the hood. Hope my idea of not welding the fenders together in the center works out; just didn't want to make the front clip one big piece. The new Lincoln 140 seems to be working pretty well.

 

Any advice on getting at the surface rust on the inside corners of my splash pan

 

Adjusted the adjustable vacumn advance and might have the right off idle bog gone.

 

I have been working on the block, I like to knock all the sharp edges off inside and out. Slicked the lifter bores up and made sure each lifter moves freely in it's bore. Plus I dropped a couple dist. in just to make sure they fit with no issues.

 

Been trying to get more room in the C1 Vette, crazy tight for a big oaf. They really improved on that with the C2, which I can fall right into. I found a steering wheel in my pile that fits, red co-incidentally, and put it on backwards, which looks like dog shit but makes the wheel position almost normal instead of chewing on it. Chevy actually shortened the column 2 inches in '58, and many owners swap those in, but I'm not ready for that, yet. They also make a repo of the stock wheel that's smaller, 15", but it's $300 or so. Might just find a flat Covico.

Then I removed the seat track, another trick to gain more room. Might have bought an inch or so, not sure it's worth trying to mount it solid. Again they make aftermarket seats, which make the $300 steering wheel sound like peanuts. I'm not interested in fixing up another car, just want to enjoy bombing around in it, which I did yesterday with the changes. Much more comfortable, so far.

BTW, hats off to you guys out there getting it done everyday, my favorite HAMB thread.

 

Love that dash.

John

 

I'm back!!! Nothing new on the '36 Cabriolet, but after almost a week with no electricity, I'm just happy to be back on the HAMB.
Last Wed night, during a thunderstorm, my neighborhood got hit with a "micro-burst" that too out about 80 trees in an 1/8th mile stretch...and made spaghetti out of our power lines.
I got lucky with only 4 large branches down..all which pretty much missed our house and cars...some neighbors weren't so lucky.
Spent all week/weekend chain sawing up the neighborhood carnage...I'm pretty sore and stiff

Even had to chain saw my way out

 

Holy S#%T, hope everyone is alright.

 

From the BillyBob Shop log.

July 15th 2021 Moving along with the piston cleanup. Meanwhile, the block paint has been curing for almost three weeks. Both the Bill Hirsh engine paint and the Glyptal insulating paint will benefit from heat treatment prior to running the engine. With that in mind, I rooted around in the dark recesses of the BillyBob shop until I found my Powder coating curing lamp. Went about setting the lamp up to bake the Glyptal paint at about 260 degrees F for 2 hrs. This process takes awhile as you have to move the engine block from time to time to concentrate the infrared rays on different areas. Beer of the day was Nebraska Brewing Company's Brunette Nut Brown Ale.

 

Went for a drive....
Dropped into a show...
Came home again ...

 

Nice! Certain colors look better faded or flat. This red and the green that came with this car are some of them.. Summit has the wheels that came on this car, there called Wheel Vintiques Series 62. 15 x 7 with a 4.25 back space is usually perfect for the el Camino..

 

So thanks to my Friend Terry my Falcon is back at Home…I had an injury that would have put me
2 months or more behind..like a true friend he stepped in and got it done…he killed it with the interior, fixed a carb leak with parts from one of his spares, and “put the tune on it”. I spent 3 days cleaning my 2 car garage, got rid of a lot of stuff, organized what I had left, and once the 10x12 goes up it will be my tools, work bench, and my car…so happy to be rolling in an old car again.